ORLANDO, Fla. – It’s COLD. Like, real cold.
And it’s going to get COLDER this weekend.
Central Florida is experiencing one of its coldest stretches in years, with a rare hard freeze increasingly likely Sunday and Monday mornings.
After several days of very chilly conditions, a powerful surge of Arctic air is expected to arrive this weekend, bringing wind chills into the single digits for some.
[WATCH YOUR FORECAST BELOW]
The BIG cold-weather story begins Saturday night. As a rapidly strengthening storm system pulls away from Florida, strong northwest winds will drag Arctic air straight down the peninsula.
As we head into a rare freeze, here’s everything to know about this cold event and how to prepare your home, plants and yourself.
Sunday morning is expected to be the coldest of this current stretch. Here’s a look at what temperatures are forecast to be at 7 a.m.
Some locations may not see temperatures above freezing for 12 hours or more.
High temperatures on Sunday may struggle to escape the 40s for many locations, making this one of the coldest air masses to affect Central Florida in decades.
Which neighborhoods will FEEL the Florida freeze the most?
Many of us will drop into below-freezing temps, but the wind chill will send the feels-like temps into the TEENS. Yeah, this weekend is going to be cold.
Here’s a county-by-county breakdown of what temps will be like:
How to prepare your pets, plants, pipes and pools
It’s important to prepare your household and pets when it comes to dealing with freezing temperatures.
Pets should be brought inside and only taken outside for brief periods.
When it comes to plants, what you do now could make all the difference for your garden. For everything to know about timing, what to use and how to exactly protect your plants, click here.
And if you have a pool, the best thing to do is turn it on and let it run overnight to keep any water from sitting in a pipe and freezing.
With rare prolonged cold, exposed pipes could become a real concern when temperatures sit below freezing for more than 4-6 hours.
As water in the pipes freezes, it expands, putting pressure on the pipe from the inside.
Here’s everything to know about protecting your pipes.
Cold weather shelters information
Most cold weather shelters in Central Florida this week are open through Friday morning. Click here to see a county-by-county breakdown.
There has not been updated information released yet about what shelters will open this weekend during the possible hard freeze.
The COLDEST day ever recorded here in downtown Orlando came in at 18 degrees during the “Great Freeze” of 1894.
So, how does this weekend’s temps stack up against the top 5 historical winter extremes? Well, we’ll be getting close.
But will we break records for the coldest Feb. 1 or Feb. 2?
Watch below to see how likely it is:
Could it SNOW in Central Florida!?!?
There’s been lots of chatter on social media about the possibility of snow in Central Florida.
Meteorologist Jonathan Kegges gives the breakdown:
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Allen UCF
Frost on the car